Partial Skills
by MatsuC
Summary: Akane is brought up in a palace, which could mean her life if her being was discovered. Against her own self, she is unable to keep herself hiding when she meets Ranma.


Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once. It's tiresome to type it over and over again. Ranma ½ is not mine.

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-Chapter One-   
They found her lying half dead in a drain. She was dying and her body was limp. Somebody had obviously tried to kill her but the process was not successful. The soldiers brought the little girl back to the palace to be treated by a physician. The girl was saved and brought back to life. The soldiers had wanted to send her away after her recovery but she seemed so alone that they felt as if they were responsible for her happiness.  
  
As Akane grew up in the palace, she was taught martial arts and had lessons. Her lessons included language classes, element fighting and also cooking classes. She excelled in most except for cooking. As Akane wasn't a member or worker for the royal family, she was warned not to go near the Central and South wing of the huge palace. Akane had always heeded this warning, as her friends (which included the soldiers and two maids, Yuka and Sayuri) had told her that it was dangerous and could take her life.  
  
However, once, when Akane was practising on her bow and arrow, she had accidentally shot the arrow over the houses into the Central area. The arrow belonged to a man who was a soldier and she knew that she would get a scolding for loosing a good arrow. When she saw the arrow go high up into the sky and over the roofs of the palace, she was filled with awe. After all, doing that for a ten-year-old would be an extraordinary feat. She was pleased with her improvement but when the arrow had fallen down, so did her spirits. She realised that she was in trouble.  
  
Therefore, she'd crept silently into the Central area to get her arrow. She'd searched beneath every rock and every leaf, but found her efforts wasted. Then she'd turned a corner and saw her arrow pierced into a drape which was supposed to act as a curtain. She pushed two boxes (and boy, were they heavy) under the window with the drape behind it and climbed onto the two boxes. Then she reached in through the window and removed the arrow. She was about to jump down when she noticed somebody else. The person was a young boy with a pigtail. He was holding a round stone in his hand. There were patterns inscribed on the surface of the stone and there was a burning aura surrounding the boy. Behind him was an older man, with both palms on the boy's naked back. Akane stared curiously. Apparently, the older man was concentrating his energy and passing it to the boy. But why would the boy need the energy? The soldiers had told her that only when one was seriously injured, would they then need energy. Another reason was if they were talented fighters. Talented fighters would need energy from young up till when they were strong enough to contain their power.  
  
Akane's eyes widened; the boy must be a talented fighter! Oh, what she'd give to be like him! She loved martial arts very much and element fighting was always fun to play with. These two arts made her feel alive and she would love to be a wonderful warrior. In the palace, a warrior was one who did very well to protect one's country and who had achieved the highest levels of element fighting. Martial art was also important and was thought to be second to element fighting. Although Akane would beg to differ, in her opinion, martial arts was more impressive, she wouldn't mind becoming very good in element fighting. She gave a sigh; the sigh attracted the attention of the young lad, who stiffened and turned to look at the window. Akane gasped, she'd been caught!  
  
"Lord Ranma, what's wrong?" the man asked, his palms fell from the boy's back and he looked into the direction of the boy's gaze. Akane almost cried out, but that was not exactly the right thing to do; she jumped off the boxes and ran off. Her legs carried her back to the yard adjacent to the North wing of the palace. She panted and slowed down. The arrow was in her hands and everything was back to normal.  
  
She fell back down on the grass and gave a sigh of relief.  
  
Two years later, when she was twelve, the soldiers were filled with anxiety. She would soon become a woman, the soldiers just didn't know when. They tried to get her to leave the palace. There were men in the palace who could hurt her if they started lusting after her. All the soldiers were willing to pay a sum of money to provide for her education and wellbeing but Akane insisted on staying with them. She'd wanted to cultivate her powers so that one day, she could fight alongside her friends in war (she didn't know that women weren't allowed in battles). The men could not resist her pouting face and succumbed to her pleading eyes. They let her stay, but they told her that should she start bleeding, she should know what to do. The maids were informed beforehand to not be startled if Akane told them that she was bleeding on the inside.  
  
But the time never came. It didn't come when she was thirteen, nor when she was fourteen (or fifteen) but on her sixteenth birthday, she got the shock of her life. The soldiers had held a mini birthday for her and not all the soldiers were invited (can you imagine more than ten thousand people fitting into one tiny room?). She had eaten the cake, which the cook had made especially for her (almost all the servants and soldiers knew of her existence) and had gone to bed tired but happy. In the middle of the night, however, she awoke with the urge to relief herself and had walked to the end of the hallway to the toilet. It was dark but she noticed something was wrong. She was bleeding!  
  
The news had been notified to the maids, who notified the soldiers.  
  
Once again, she'd begged them to let her stay. And of course, they'd yielded to her pleas, after all, the soldiers themselves were not allowed to get married, and therefore, had no children of their own. Akane jumped about for days, happy that she could stay.  
  
A carefree girl, she could be found polishing her archery skills or element battling with one or two higher ranked soldiers.  
  
"Himitsu, I bet you can't win," she laughed and threw a ball of ice at him. Himitsu dodged the ball and it came smashing into a tree. Leaves floated down and landed on the ground.  
  
"Gosh, you don't have to get so excited over a spar, Akane," Himitsu chided and shot a long line of fire at her She quickly froze the fire and gave it a kick; the frozen fire broke into pieces, like shattered glass, and dropped to the ground. The ice melted and seeped into the ground.  
  
"Alright, alright, I give up," Himitsu shook both hands to indicate surrender and then collapsed onto the ground, yawning. Akane was indignant He was supposed to fight until there was a winner.  
"Hi-mi-tsu," she said his name in broken syllables. "You're not supposed to stop till one of us tags the other."  
  
"And you're right," he grinned, "Tag," he tagged her.  
  
Akane did not realise what had happened until she felt his hand leave her skirt. "Why, you..." she growled. "You cheater! How dare you!"  
  
She tugged her skirt as far away from him as possible and gave a low growl of disgust. Such tactics were horrible and childish. She had a good mind to give him a long scolding when noises from beyond the wall caught their attention.  
  
"Akane, hide," he urgently but softly cried out. Akane ducked beneath the bushes behind the tree and stayed there. The doors to the courtyard shot open and in stepped a few court officials with a man behind them.  
  
Akane gasped as she realised that the courtyard was really messy. There was the ice, some of it melting, some of it still half frozen. The tree was crystallized in the middle (where her iced ball had come into contact with) Himitsu was blushing and panting at the same time (from having run to stand in front of the bush where Akane was hiding at) and- oh no! Her bow and arrows were still on the ground a few feet away from the bush. The bow was not registered as a military weapon and had been made by Akane's own hands. Himitsu's older brother, Kagoya, had taught her how to make a bow and arrows. If the officials had found it, Akane's existence would be known to the palace...and to the nation!  
  
The soldiers would also be killed for having sheltered her. Akane could not risk letting her friends die. She would have to get the weapons quickly. She reached out for the bow first.  
  
Himitsu was kneeling on the ground, face ashen and lips apart. The court officials were looking at him. Akane managed to get the bow because of this. Then the arrows and everybody would live happily ever after, she thought.  
  
She reached out slowly, not wanting to catch the attention of the officials. She clasped the arrows and brought them toward her, slowly, slowly...the man was looking at her arrows...slowly, slowly- the man was what?!  
  
Akane snatched her hand back in and held back an 'eep'.  
  
Through the bushes, she could catch a glimpse of the man's face. He had the most beautiful blue eyes and his hair was long, it was tied into a pigtail. He seemed so familiar...but she couldn't remember where she saw him.  
  
The man was looking directly at her. She breathed in sharply, could he see her? From the way he was staring at her, it was as if he was targeting her. His eyes were the predator, hers were the prey and she could not move them away from his piercing gaze. Then she blinked and the spell was broken. She closed her eyes tightly to remove the vision of him.  
  
She heard footsteps coming closer and closer. Peeping through her half closed eyelids, she saw that the pigtailed boy was coming toward her. And the only thought that entered her mind was that maybe they all wouldn't live so happily ever after. 


End file.
